Her face was rather pretty, but its features were so small that it was all but lost in its billowing surroundings, and it was covered by a thin, fair skin that was subject to disfiguring affections, now hives, now eczema, now impetigo, and the whole was framed by fine, pale hair that was abused once a week by a Friseur who baked it with an iron into dozens of horrid little snails.

It is no longer merely quixotic, for instance, to ask why Karl-Emil Franzos' Der Pojaz is not a standard part of a course dealing with nineteenth-century German fiction, why Alexander Granach's Da geht ein Mensch was out of print and virtually unknown for decades after its publication, or why Edgar Hilsenrath's Nacht or Der Nazi und der Friseur are not required reading for any course on the literature of the Second World War and/or The Holocaust.

Edgar Hilsenrath's satirical novel Der Nazi und der Friseur relates the story of Max Schulz, a Holocaust perpetrator who, after the war, steals the identity of one of his Jewish victims and transforms himself into a paradigmatic Holocaust survivor and model Israeli citizen.

For Gilman, ultimately, Becker's most valuable literary contribution lies with his three "Jewish" novels, Jakob der Lugner (1969), Der Boxer (1976) and Bronsteins Kinder (1986) that take their place next to comparable works such as Edgar Hilsenrath's Der Nazi und der Friseur (1971) and Leslie Epstein's King of the Jews (1977).

All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.